Changes will affect voters, those registering to vote

The St. Charles Parish Registrar of Voters office has been implementing some changes to make it easier to vote and register to vote.

For active military, Registrar of Voters Brian Champagne said that receiving absentee ballots while deployed has been a problem in the past.

"It is a problem, especially for military when they're overseas in those isolated areas," Champagne said. "We had a young man in the military from our parish last year, he was in Iraq and he didn't receive his ballot until six weeks after the election."

Congress recently passed an act to help make sure that absentee ballots will be mailed out at least 45 days prior to any election. Also, active military that are deployed overseas can have the ballot e-mailed to them and then send it in through the mail.

"We're going to have to push up qualifying (elections) to give us more time to get the ballots in the mail and give the military more time to get them back," Champagne said.

The Registrar's office has made another change that will make it easier for most people to register to vote.

Parishioners with an active driver's license can now register to vote online.

The Registrar's office is now able to cross signatures with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Champagne said that his office is doing even more to try to keep their records up-to-date and make sure that voting is as efficient and accurate as possible.

Inactive voters that the Registrar's office does not have a current record of address for will be required to fill out an address confirmation affidavit before being allowed to vote in any future elections. A list of inactive voters will be published in the St. Charles Herald-Guide and online at www.stcharlesparish-la.gov.

Champagne said that the office is also currently looking for poll workers for upcoming elections in the fall. Contact the Registrar of Voters at (985)783-5120 for more information on any of these changes or to be a poll worker.